Time to move on

How much can be accomplished in two years? A lot, considering the enormous powers given to the president of the republic.

 For those who dismiss President Aquino as a lame duck in his fifth year, it’s good to remember what Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did in her own “last two minutes” at Malacañang. She wielded full power even when a winner had been proclaimed in the presidential race, appointing a new chief justice and many others to positions high and low in government.

Undoing GMA’s appointments, notably for the chief justice, required the investment of political capital that has brought the daang matuwid administration to where it is now: on the defensive for its utilization of public funds.

In his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) this afternoon, President Aquino should avoid nagging his “bosses” again about the good faith that went into the design and implementation of his Disbursement Acceleration Program. That unctuous, seven-hour hosanna to DAP at the Senate last week was cloying enough.

P-Noy’s defense of the DAP has become Pavlovian: he sees a microphone and camera and he can’t resist singing praises about his stimulus program, and lambasting those nasty Supreme Court (SC) justices, particularly his traitorous appointees, for their inability to see his point.

In fact no one – not even the SC justices in their unanimous decision – is disputing that useful projects were implemented through the DAP. No one is accusing P-Noy of pocketing any public funds either.

But the system is flawed and must be stopped, according to the SC. P-Noy can seek a supplemental budget for interrupted DAP programs – which he is doing – while an improved system of budgeting is drawn up.

People need not be told over and over that unlike the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or congressional pork barrel, even notorious crooks in Congress did not skim funds from the DAP through bogus non-government organizations. Yes, P-Noy, even the math-challenged get it: the DAP is not PDAF.

By all means the budget overhaul should include judicial funds, whose utilization must be injected with transparency. The executive and legislative branches – designers and beneficiaries of the DAP and pork barrel – need not be shrill or petty about it. Slashing the judiciary’s budget is infantile.

P-Noy is risking a significant amount of public goodwill in his bratty insistence that the SC is wrong on DAP.

Even investors are spooked. I’ve heard concerns raised in business circles about the possible impact of this ugly battle between Malacañang and the judiciary on the rule of law, weak enough as it is.

There’s life after DAP. Its loss shouldn’t hijack P-Noy’s agenda in his last two years in office.

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The SONA is traditionally a platform for touting one’s achievements. P-Noy has earned bragging rights for the country’s first-ever investment grade from all the major rating agencies, given in the past year. It’s a boon for anyone doing business in this country. If investment grade hasn’t translated so far into impressive levels of job-generating investments, there are other factors to blame, which aren’t being dealt with decisively.

Under P-Noy’s watch the country has seen improvements, though slight, in international rankings on competitiveness and ease of doing business.

There are fewer epals around and I don’t think the public will tolerate a return of VIP wang-wangs or sirens after noon of June 30, 2016. P-Noy also managed to enact the sin tax and reproductive health laws.

A former president is under hospital arrest for plunder, although this is no longer new. What’s new is that under P-Noy’s watch, three senators and their top aides are detained without bail on accusations that they stole people’s money. Combined with the endless weeping and fainting of Gigi Reyes and now Janet Napoles over tiny, non-air-conditioned and rodent-infested jails, public officials may finally start thinking twice, 20 times, before misusing public funds.

As the two chambers of the 16th Congress jointly open their second regular session today, Filipinos are gleefully making a head count of who might be left once all the lawmakers implicated in the PDAF scam – as detailed in Commission on Audit reports – are also arrested.

This is one of the public expectations as P-Noy enters his fifth year: that the PDAF-related indictments will not be limited to opposition members.

The best way to erode the credibility of the PDAF probe is to give it a partisan flavor. Prosecutors cannot look trigger-happy when it comes to the opposition, and gun-shy when it comes to allies. Daang matuwid cannot even act on the extortion accusations against the unlamented former chief of the Metro Rail Transit.

Malacañang is correct in pointing out that P-Noy still enjoys the support of the majority, based on the latest surveys giving him a rating of a little over 50 percent – the actual figure rather than the net. That’s still comfortably high for a president in his last two minutes.

But it’s still a steep drop from his previous numbers that hovered around the high 60s to 70 percent. And it could get worse. Consumer prices aren’t going to improve with the paralysis at the ports. Also, P-Noy could end up like his mother, ending his term as the King of Darkness. A power crisis combined with the port chaos can be toxic to investments.

The Aquino factor, which has buoyed business confidence, is losing its luster as P-Noy is perceived to be surrounding himself with questionable characters and protecting the interests of friends and a miniscule few.

Now his truculence over the DAP is fueling suspicion that he needs the stimulus program for his political party and his preferred successor in 2016.

A president’s power of endorsement will depend on his performance and achievements, particularly in the final stretch of his term. Right now P-Noy seems to be fully distracted by his battle with the Supreme Court over the DAP.

Poverty incidence has barely eased since P-Noy assumed office. The benefits of sustained economic growth are not being felt by the mahirap. And the corrupt are still around, demanding grease money ranging from penny ante “facilitation fees” for ordinary public services to $30 million for the award of a government contract.

There’s still too much work ahead without being distracted by battles that can’t be won. P-Noy should write off his DAP and move on.